Typically when packaging cigarettes with a packaging machine, a cigarette hopper having a large number of cigarettes therein is used to arrange a bundle of the cigarettes for subsequent transfer and compression by a throat or compression device such that the compressed configuration is then transferred into a preformed cigarette container. The cigarette hopper includes one or more vertical or curved vanes, or a combination thereof, that arrange the cigarettes into a desired bundle configuration. The desired bundle configuration is a function of the number of cigarettes that the container is desired to contain. As well known in the art, such configurations can be: a 3 row, 7-6-7 or 7xe2x80x947-6 configuration for 20 cigarettes per container; a 2 row, 5xe2x80x945 configuration for 10 cigarettes per container; a 2 row, 9xe2x80x949 configuration for 18 cigarettes per container; a 2 row, 10xe2x80x9410 configuration for 20 cigarettes per container; or a 3 row, 7xe2x80x947xe2x80x947 configuration for 21 cigarettes per container.
Regardless of the actual desired configuration used, the bundle of cigarettes is first formed into a loose rectangular configuration in the cigarette hopper. Thereafter, the rectangular bundle of cigarettes is transferred by a transfer mechanism into a compression drum or like device. The compression drum compresses the loose rectangular bundle transferred into an entry portion thereof by the transfer mechanism in both the width and length direction of the rectangular configuration, so that a compact rectangular bundle is thereafter moved by the (same or different) transfer mechanism from an exit portion of the compression drum. The transfer mechanism then effects movement of the compact bundle from the exit portion of the compression drum and insertion of this compact bundle into the container.
In accordance with the present invention, a channeling device is provided for transferring and compressing a bundle of cigarettes formed into a rectangular configuration by a hopper into a preformed container. The channeling device includes a base having a longitudinal axis and a longitudinal channel through the base. The channel includes an entry portion having a lateral entry cross section which is rectangular and adapted to receive the loose bundle of cigarettes, and an exit portion having a non-rectangular exit cross section smaller than the entry cross section and adapted to deliver the compact bundle of cigarettes to a container having a matching non-rectangular cross section. An intermediate portion smoothly connects the entry portion to the exit portion.
In one preferred embodiment, the non-rectangular cross section is flask-shaped. In another preferred embodiment, the non-rectangular cross section is polygonal, such as octagonal. In still another preferred embodiment, the non-rectangular cross section is oval shaped.
In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention, the entry portion has a rounded circumferential edge. In addition, the intermediate portion includes a plurality of adjacent walls and intersections of the adjacent walls are rounded.
Also in the preferred embodiment, the loose bundle of cigarettes is laterally compressed to a greater degree in a width direction of the rectangular configuration than in a length direction of the rectangular configuration. In particular, the loose bundle of cigarettes is preferably laterally compressed in the width direction by about 1-10%.
It is an advantage of the present invention that a channeling device is provided which can deliver a rectangular bundle of cigarettes from a hopper into a non-rectangular cigarette container.
It is also an advantage of the present invention that the rectangular bundle of cigarettes from the hopper is incrementally converted into the non-rectangular shape of the non-rectangular cigarette container by the intermediate portion of the channeling device.
Other features and advantages of the present invention are stated in or apparent from detailed descriptions of presently preferred embodiments of the invention found hereinbelow.